/bin/tim

The first time I saw there was going to be a cinema release of the animated Star Wars series I was a bit non-plussed.  It didn’t look like it would be special in any way, and what I love about Star Wars is the graphics and the sounds, not the storyline or acting.  So I surprised myself when I was browsing upcoming movie trailers on my Apple iTV.  I watched the trailer in HD and was immediately impressed with the detail and the way the images are drawn (or rendered).  So I am now looking forward to the release.

It also put me in mind of the SuperThruster video EP from Sly and Robbie.  Well worth getting on DVD for its manga and thumping baseline.  Here’s a horribly compromised and dark copy I found on YouTube.

… no its the UK banking industry warping into the 21st Century with the new Fast Payment system.  Almost unbelievably, we in the UK can now do same day electronic payments, well almost;  some banks are lagging and some are only doing transfers of less than £5(!),  but despite me still pinching myself, it has actually worked today.  At least there’s no going back now,  with direct debits to follow soon, and who knows where it will stop, cheques next?   In reality, this of course comes not a minute to soon in case PayPal and others start to steal their money transfer business.

Of course as we all know, balance and karma must be maintained in any industry, and banking is no different,  and on the very same day, Barclays restored the balance by informing me they are not going to improve their online banking system which currently limits your transaction history to 60 items or 60 days.  So if you are running your business on Barclays you can’t even see enough data to do one VAT quarter let alone a whole year.  Barclays problem is that they are basically running a system designed 10 years ago and never touched since.  Back in 2001 I was advising they stored statements online as PDF’s which could be downloaded, and provide secure communication to your branch or specific Barclays staff, but alas it seems that they have been unable to do any of this, and sadly, not for the foreseeable future either.  

I have finally given up after 7 years of trying to jostle Barclays into providing a service that is more than just a payment system as there is a disconnect between customers, branches and the owners of the Internet banking group who really seem not to want to know what customers think.  Here’s the process I just went through which took a month;

• I register complaint with PC Banking about 60 transaction limit with India
• Call is escalated to PC Banking help in Coventry
• Operator very understanding but can do nothing to help and offers to escalate to Central Complaints
• Receive letter next day saying they will respond in 21 days
• 25 days later I call to follow up with Central Complaints
• They inform me there is nothing they can do and offer to escalate to PC Banking help in Coventry
• Hmmm … surely that’s a closed loop system
• … and of course thats where it ended, back at square 1, just a month later.

Whats crazy is that me and other concerned customers are just trying to help and be part of the solution for them but theres no way to interact with anyone who has any influence…. and … whats more one of the many times quoted reasons about lack of storage is easily overcome, and rapidly if the desire is there.

If it was me in Barclays PC Banking, I’d accept the limitations of the current system and exploit the existing security platform for authentication but extend the system with an online analytics data processing farm that could create on demand reports as PDF’s (or better still, an altaVENTE protected document) which could be downloaded.  Voila! a cheap, fast to implement solution that would keep the service acceptable whilst a new system is delivered.

The real solution ?  Well sadly, and despite every other effort their only option is to move to a bank with an online banking system that actually gives you full reporting and analytics, or reporting at least.  But if anyone from Barclays does read this and want my feedback then just let me know.

I want to be able to use my Wii from different rooms.  Getting the video signal piped to different rooms is no problem, but what about the controller?  Can it work in a different room?  could we even play from different rooms with multiple bars?

There’s a few articles on how to extend the length of the bar cable, but I haven’t found anyone who has successfully split bar inputs?  I’ll update when I’ve succeeded.

This is a good idea that could be great.  TrainTracker gets realtime train running times from the live departure boards data feed so you can get accurate info on the train you are running for.

Why isn’t it great? Well, a simple update to being able to use the station short codes via the keypad would be great.  Right now it uses voice recognition, you know the sort of thing ‘Did you say Machester’ right after you actually said London.  Couple this with standing in a loud busy place where you can hardly hear then you see the problem,  its worst just where you need it most.

However, the idea and sentiment is great. Anyway, all stations have three letter codes like airports, so for instance CHX is London Charing Cross so I should be able to call Train Tracker and type in 249 (CHX).  Hopefully they will add this real soon as its a no-brainer.

0871 200 49 50

http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passenger_services/info_on_the_move/traintracker.html

As any of those who know me will attest, I’m a UI design freak.  I may not be able to draw properly but I know what looks good and works well.  So,  the following tagline about the OpenOffice 3.0 beta immediately caught my eye.

‘New, Fresh-Looking Icons’ - OpenOffice.org 3.0 got a new set of fresh-looking icons which makes OpenOffice.org a lot more fun to work with.

So, flush with anticipation to see what their 2008 take would be on an Office UI compared to the Ribbon from Microsoft I eagerly went straight to that link preparing to be wowed.

WOW, was the right word.  Surely these are the icons that shipped with Windows 3.11 somewhere back in the early 90’s? 

Not sure if they are really clever and this is retro chic to combat the Ribbon, or maybe that’s how they really think a modern UI should look…. as to being fun to work with, I can imagine it wil be a game.